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Families Facing
Illness
When illness develops or
continues over time, many demands can overwhelm family resources.
Families often need support of a larger community to respond to these
demands. Therapeutic conversations can be helpful in facing
dilemmas and coming up with new approaches to solving problems during
different stages of an illness. Below are listed some of the
conversations that are part of my practice with families facing
illness. See the
Bibliography for more information. I discuss these
ideas further in a recent presentation titled:
Families Facing Illness: Building Internal and External Resources.
At Diagnosis:
Maintaining the familiar with radical change.
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Exploring the meanings of diagnosis for adult family members. |
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Discussing diagnosis with children and others. |
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Searching for ways to maintain the everyday of life. |
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Searching out information from others. |
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Planning ways for family members and friends to participate . |
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Helping families make decisions. |
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Advocating for families with medical and insurance systems. |
Ongoing Crises: Sustaining hope with
continuing loss.
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Discussing
the meanings of illness and death. |
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Looking for helpful
stories and practices. |
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Planning ways for
the family to spend good times together. |
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Attending to the
needs of the patient and other family members.
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Convening a wider
circle of friends and family for ongoing support. |
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Providing
coordinated care with all service providers. |
Conscious death and dying: Knowing
the unknowable
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Providing openings for conversations about
death and dying. |
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Tolerating and experiencing intense grief with
family members |
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Exploring beliefs, meanings and family stories
about death and dying |
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Discussing the implications of choosing life
support systems |
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Discussing preparations for dying and death.
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Responding to the different reactions of PTSD
and grief. |
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